Deer Park Monastery is the best summer vacation trip

by Mykim Tran. Examiner.com, June 17, 2009

Sacramento, CA (USA) -- Imagine this, you are stress out and you want to go somewhere to stop and rest and maybe have some peace to yourself. Suddenly, you came by a place that is up in the mountain.

The surrounding of the place is very clean, calm, and peaceful. There are not many people around. As you walk around the place, you feel more relax and calm. Well there is a place like that in California, and it is called, “Deer Park Monastery.”

Deer Park Monastery is located in Escondido, California. Deer Park Monastery is as big as 400 arcs and is surrounded with mountain and beautiful scenarios.

The monastery was developed on July 2001, by Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh. Thich Nhat Hanh is a Vietnamese Buddhist Zen Master who developed the tradition called, “Engaged Buddhism.” Engage Buddhism is a tradition that applied Buddhism teaching to our daily lifestyle to help people become happier people.

Whenever people hear the word monastery or something relate to Buddhism, they automatically think to a lot of sitting meditation and chanting. It is different with Engage Buddhism. Most part of the day, the monks and nuns put their times in to do every day activities such as taking turn cooking, gardening, house keeping, office work and other normal daily activities.

Every year there are retreats for all different age groups, colors, and businesses. All retreats at Deer Park Monastery include the basic practices of sitting meditation and chanting, walking meditation, eating in mindfulness, group discussions, touching the Earth, total relaxation, and working meditation. Depending on the retreat, extra activities may include private consultations, mountain hiking, bon-fire, and song & skit performances. Retreats are for beginners and experienced practitioners of meditation.

In society today, it is very hard for people to have some peace and not get affected with the media. However, when you get to the monastery, it is a different world and all the media and everything that distracts you is left behind. People are able to think clearly and do not have the media influencing them to do certain things.

If you want to take a vacation and re-charge your energy and come home with a clear mind, staying at Deer Park Monastery will do it for you.

For more info: Log on to Deer Park Monastery for more detail and about up coming retreats with Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh.